The Rt Rev John Gladwin said that the report was not altering teaching but providing a proper procedure and consistency for a form of marriage that some clergy perform now anyway.

He claimed that the new proposals would be very good for the diocese as they would help clergy, in the parishes by giving them a coherent structure for dealing with the matter when it arises. Explaining the history behind it, the bishop said that in 1957 an act of convocation was passed saying clergy should not conduct marriage for divorcees. But a large number of priests and church members were uncomfortable with this, as many members were getting divorced and wanting to remarry. Then in 1981, the General Synod resolved that certain persons "may be married in church during the lifetime of a former spouse".

But the bishop said that what could not be found was a procedure to make that effective. "Now this report is suggesting a procedure for the church to coherently make provision for marrying divorcees in church," he said. The report would help clergy, who had to decide which divorcee could be married and which could not, how to make their judgment. The bishop's role would be to provide a back up to the priest and ensure the process was consistent. The bishop said the new proposals had come about in the context of rising divorce rates. "Lots of people have been through divorce who want to marry again, and the report recognises that we've got to minister to these people and that the church should be positively working with them," he added. But he warned that not all divorcees would be permitted to marry in church. "If the new partner was part of the reason for the break up of the earlier marriage then that would be difficult," he said.